2025 and then: Lipscomb celebrates MLK Day for quarter-century

Today, having a day off from classes at Lipscomb University for Martin Luther King Jr. Day is a given.

But that has not always been the case.

The first MLK Day in the U.S. was celebrated on Jan. 20, 1986, after President Ronald Reagan signed it into law in November 1983. Fourteen years after 1986, Lipscomb University joined in.

When the recognition of the holiday was announced, student Matt Kirby, then editor-in-chief of Lipscomb’s school paper The Babbler, wrote an opinion piece. Kirby believed that the new holiday was a step in the right direction, but that the steps should not stop there. To Kirby, simply having a day off from classes was not the proper way to observe the holiday.

“Instead of just using it to get some extra sleep, or go and play in the crisp January air, we should all think about the struggle for equal rights and the things King did for our country,” Kirby wrote.

He insisted that the university needed to organize events that could promote racial understanding.

It’s been 25 years since Lipscomb officially recognized MLK Day and since Matt Kirby left his opinion in The Babbler. This raises the question: Is Martin Luther King Jr. Day at Lipscomb more than just a day off?

Distinguished Professor William Turner acknowledged that for some students it may be.

“I think for a significant number of our students, it is just more than a day off,” Turner said.

In the last few years, Turner has been heavily involved with an annual staff celebration to commemorate MLK, different from the one offered at The Gathering for students. These events involve choir singers and special guest speakers. They’ve turned out to be massive successes for the faculty.

“I’ve heard things from our faculty like, ‘This is the best thing I’ve ever experienced at Lipscomb,’” Turner said. “And this is from all faculty — not just faculty of color.”

This success is partly due to the considerable thought and effort that go into selecting speakers for the event. Turner says that he likes to start preparing for the next one immediately after the previous one ends. 

Before Turner ran the faculty events, there had been efforts from other administrators. Norma Burgess, former associate provost for Diversity, Inclusion, & Special Initiatives, organized MLK diversity dinners before Turner took the mantle.

Burgess had a unique perspective because of her upbringing in West Tennessee.

“I was in eighth grade when Martin Luther King was shot,” Burgess said. “My dad worked in Memphis, and we talked about what it was like to be under curfew the day he was shot. It was kind of creepy because everything was quiet. Memphis is a big, roaring city.”

Twenty-five years of MLK Days have shown real progress at Lipscomb University. This is partly due to the events organized by Dr. Turner and Dr. Burgess. Thanks to their hard work, there’s more awareness on campus among both the faculty and the student body.

This is especially notable in the attendance numbers for the MLK joint day of service in Nashville. Students from universities across the Nashville area take their entire Saturday to help in the community. In 2023, 43 Lipscomb students volunteered, along with hundreds more from other area schools.

“But I would like to think that where it really makes a difference,” Turner said, “is that it gives students an opportunity to really think about how they need to be more involved in the lives of people who might be different than they are — who look different than they are, who have a different culture and come from a different socioeconomic group.”

This upcoming January will be the 26th year in a row that students will have the day off, and Turner will once again organize an event on the Thursday before MLK Day.